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New Democratic Party (Zardugal)
| Seats2 Title = State Governorships | Seats2 = | Website = www.ndp.org}} The New Democratic Party (NDP) of Zardugal was a major political party in Zardugal, competing with at various times with the Conservative Republican Party (CRP), Socialist Workers Party (SWP; not to be confused with the later party of the same name), Zardic Labour Party (ZLP), Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and National Populist Front (NPF). It was founded in 3321 by a retired lawyer, Patrick Davis, and soon became one of the major forces in Zardic politics. The NDP was a centre-right party which stands for classical liberalism and moderate libertarianism, and supports deregulation, privatisation and social progressivism. It also advocated fiscal responsibility and secularism, and gave its tepid support to internationalism. At the national level, the NDP was last led by former Finance Minister James Perrault, and its deputy leader was Interior Minister Darryl Gabler. The NDP spent a total of twenty-one years leading the government, and at its height controlled 76.67% of the seats in Congress and all five state governments. The NDP was dissolved in 3355, leaving behind a two-party system with the CRP and SWP competing against each other for power. Unfortunately, its legacy was largely shattered by a coalition of the CRP and SWP. History Founding The NDP was founded in 3321 by a diverse group of politically active people, such as lawyers (Patrick Davis and Wyatt Walker), economists (Benjamins Sims, Nicholas Allen and John Carey), diplomats (Michael Dowdy and Darren Nicholson) and soldiers (Brian Johnston and James Taylor). At the beginning, the NDP was competing for support with the CRP, the Federalist Party and the National Populist Front (NPF). Currently, only the CRP remains active. During this early period, the NDP built up its political support by constantly proposing legislation - over thirty bills by the time of the elections in December 3323 - under the leadership first of Patrick Davis, then Ben Sims after Davis suffered a stroke, resigned from the leadership, and died shortly after. During this time, the NDP had several members in a coalition cabinet with the CRP. First election and government The election of December 3323 were to prove a shocking and unexpected success for the NDP. While small gains of perhaps several seats were anticipated, the NDP was instead swept into power with almost 60% of the vote. Unprepared for a victory of this scale, the NDP had not fielded a presidential candidate, and Leader Ben Sims rashly held new elections in an attempt to win the presidency. While it succeeded in its objective, and Wyatt Walker was elected President, the election cost the NDP a majority. For the first time, the NDP entered government as the senior partner in coalition with the NPF, and Sims became Prime Minister. During his tenure, he would liberalise the economy by reducing regulation and cutting the size of government. At the same time, however, he established a social safety net; previously, there was no welfare in Zardugal. He would also vastly liberalise Zardugal in terms of its social policies. The NDP emerged from the election of January 3327 with an increased plurality, and continued its coalition with the NPF. However, faced with the rise of the Socialist Worker's Party (SWP), which threatened to prevent the NDP from ever entering government again if they did not call an election, Sims went to the polls again. The result was disastrous. The NDP was reduced to a third party, with just over one fifth of the seats in Congress. Sims' support among NDP Congressional Caucus collapsed, and facing a leadership challenge, he handed over the leadership of the NDP to its Deputy Leader, Michael Dowdy. Sims retired from politics. Surprisingly, the SWP was willing to act as the junior partner in a coalition with the NDP, which took all of the ministries in the Cabinet. Immediately, Dowdy followed in the footsteps of his predecessor and further reduced the amount of government spending and repealed a large amount of CRP legislation which had not yet been repealed. In election of January 3329, held after the dissolution of the NPF, increased the NDP's seat share, although the NDP still remained in third place. NDP majority The SWP also dissolved itself shortly after, and new elections were held in December 3329 to fill the empty seats. The NDP won a majority of the seats, and its presidential candidate, Karen Sosa, was successful. Dowdy would spend the next year or so privatising government companies while centralising government responsbilities. He also lowered taxes and spending. However, Dowdy's campaign to reduce the size and increase the efficiency of government was interrupted by foreign events. Tensions between al'Badara and the Zardic ally Kafuristan erupted into open war. Zardugal was forced to enter the conflict, which soon became called the Great Majatran War. Dowdy spent the next several years co-ordinating the military and diplomatic efforts of the Zardugal in combating the Badarans. In August 3332, the NDP entered a national unity government with the CRP due to the war. Dowdy agreed to give up his Premiership, but regained it shortly after due to the collapse of the coalition. He went on to win the election of December 3332, which gave the NDP a slightly reduced majority. Dowdy then continued his close supervision of Zardugal's military and diplomatic actions. Zardic military successes culminated in the amphibious invasion of al'Badara. From a position of strength, Dowdy decided to begin negotiations with the parties to the war in an attempt to find peace. He opened a peace conference in Venetium in Ingomu in November 3335. With the worst of the war largely behind, the NDP faced the public in an election in December 3335. Again, the its majority was reduced a little. However, without foreign events to consume his time and attention, Dowdy continued to privatise government companies and agencies, and increased civil liberties. In December 3338, another election was held. No seats changed hands. The next three years were generally uneventful as far as politics were concerned, with the exception of the founding of the centre-left Zardic Labour Party in October 3341. Overseas, Dowdy helped the Kafuri government combat terrorism. In opposition In November 3341, Dowdy stepped down as NDP leader in favour of the Foreign Minister Darren Nicholson, having announced his intention to do so several years earlier. After close to 18 years under a NDP government, the public went to the polls the month after Dowdy's resignation profoundly bored. The NDP lost seventeen seats, and the CRP became the majority party, and entered government in February the next year. During the next legislative term, the CRP made radical moves to cut public spending by over half. They also legislated to implement their conservative agenda, such as banning abortions (barring medical emergencies), permitting segregation and banning homosexuals from marrying or adopting children. In response to this, the NDP and the newly founded Zardic Labour Party (ZLP) decided to form a shadow cabinet which would better hold the government accountable. It was at this time that the NDP proposed the idea of Prime Minister's Questions to scrutinise the government's policies. National unity government However, the political disunity shortly dissapated as a result of a surprise attack on a Zardic naval port by Indrala. War was declared, and a national unity government composed of all three major parties was created. Elections were held in February 3344, seven months early. As a result of the rising popularity of the ZLP, both the NDP and CRP lost significant numbers of seats. The NDP was reduced to 216 seats from 369. The NDP's confidence in its Leader Darren Nicholson collapsed, and its first leadership spill was held, with the Deputy Leader and Shadow Finance Minster, John Carey, and Shadow Interior Minister Cody Vanderheyden challenging for the leadership. With the motion to vacate the leadership successful, Nicholson, Carey and Vanderheyden declared their candidacies. Carey was eliminated quite convincingly on the first round; the second was tied. Nicholson, not wanting to divide the party, resigned in favour of Vanderheyden, and took over the deputy leadership from Carey five days later. The coalition cabinet between the three major parties and led by the CRP passed unanimously through Congress in June. Darren Nicholson returned to the head of the Foreign Ministry and John Carey reclaimed his position as Finance Minister. Suzan Brookhart, a relative newcomer to the shadow cabinet, became the Trade and Industry Minister. The NDP would play a significant role in the war due to its control over the Foreign and Finance Ministries. However, despite this, the NDP would lose 28 seats in the elections of 3347. This further electoral defeat left the NDP with under a third of of the congressional seats. With unease over the leadership of the relatively inexperienced Vanderheyden, a second spill motion loomed. Vanderheyden, who had gained the leadership due to Darren Nicholson's resignation, chose to return the favour in preference to being removed by the congressional caucus. In 3349, after the ZLP's decline in activity, the CRP and NDP removed the ZLP from the Cabinet. Darren Nicholson, reluctant to travel around the world so often due to his old age, decided to resign from the position of Foreign Minister, and was succeeded by Ronald Martin. The elections of February 3350 were the next in a chain of bad electoral results, with the NDP losing 12 seats. The ZLP became the equal-largest party in Congress. NDP supermajority; coalition continues The ZLP departed from the political scene in May, leaving over a third of the seats in Congress vacant. New elections were called for June 3350. Again, the NDP surprised both political analysts and themselves. While a close defeat or modest victory was expected, the nation was shocked when the NDP managed to win 399 more seats than before, giving them 575 seats in Congress - over three-quarters of the seats. The CRP not only failed to win vacant ZLP seats, but lost 112 seats. The NDP also succeeded in winning all five State Governorships. After the electoral victory, the new NDP members of Congress constituted more than two-thirds of the NDP's Congressional Caucus. The NDP freshmen were assertive from the very beginning, and proceeded to shake up the NDP frontbench. A near-complete reshuffle was forced on a somewhat reluctant Leader. In September, Nicholson achieved his life-long ambition of becoming Prime Minister, presiding over a wartime coalition cabinet. The celebrations were short-lived. The invasion of Jelbania (part of the Great Dovani War) has resulted in a chain of fiascos or, at best, insignificant successes. The situation further deteriorated with Telamon's invasion. After the occupation of Belgae, the President, Anton Disraeli, ordered the surrender of Zardic forces. While Nicholson supported this move, it precipitated Zardugal's first constitutional crisis under its new Constitution, which had been adopted in April 3351. President Disraeli threatened to arrest Nicholson for treason if he opposed the surrender. Nicholson replied that under the Constitution, the President had to seek advice from the Prime Minister before surrendering Zardic forces, and the Prime Minister therefore could not be charged with treason for opposing a surrender. He also stated that Disraeli's threats almost constituted a coup attempt, and stated that he had the authority to dissolve the coalition cabinet and impeach the President. Disraeli stated that he had full control over the Zardic Armed Forces in his capacity as commander-in-chief. Meanwhile, with the war over, the NDP decided to push through a number of liberalising reforms, which it did not want to bring to debate during the war lest they undermine national unity. This resulted in a second crisis, due to the banning of religious schools by the legislature. Disraeli refused to execute the law, resulting in threats of impeachment, dissolution of the coalition cabinet, and using the courts to enforce the law. Electoral disaster In 3353, the NDP had its worst ever electoral performance, perhaps a reaction against the recent defeat of Zardugal. It was reduced from 575 to 151 seats, a net loss of 424 seats. However, it managed to hang onto one State Governorship, that of Unkassa. The newly founded far-left Socialist Workers' Party rocketed to prominence in its first election, rather similarly to the NDP in 3323, and became the largest party with 303 seats. Vanderheyden's support within the Congressional Caucus evaporated once again, and he was resoundingly defeated in a leadership spill by James Perrault, 139 to 12. Darryl Gabler became the Deputy Leader unopposed. The CRP proposed a continuation of the coalition cabinet with the NDP. However, the NDP refused to join unless certain bills were supported by the CRP. Unexpectedly, the CRP instead decided to join with the SWP in a coalition, uniting two diametrically opposed parties on both social and economic issues. In June 3355, the NDP dissolved itself. Legacy From 3320 to 3353 the NDP was one of the major forces in Zardic politics and arguably the dominant party of the era. Many scholars point favorably at how the NDP held a frm centrist libertarian course that defied by the rightist Conservative Republican Party and the more leftist Socialist Workers Parties which arose from time to time. Even after dissolution many CRO members privately and reluctantly said the NDP made Zardugal a player in the international system and made great contributions to Zardic diplomacy. Thie rfree market and strong defense stance won many friends in CRP circles but their progressive social and health policies drove the CRP leaders mad and prevented any meaningful coalition from forming between themselves Ultimately most historians view the NDP is a favorable light for overseeing a time of economic boom, international acclaim and stable leadership. Structure At the federal level, the New Democratic Party was composed of four major institutions, the Congressional Caucus, National Convention, National Executive Committee, and General Secretariat. The Congressional Caucus was composed of all the NDP members who are also members of the Congress. It elected the NDP leaders. The Caucus was led by the Congressional Leader, James Perrault, who was assisted by Deputy Leader Darryl Gabler and Chief Whip Kathleen Cantero. Due to the NDP's party discipline, the party platform was largely determined by the party leaders. The National Convention had 580 members, and met twice every year. Its members were elected every three years by the NDP members, with the exception of eight, of which fifty were elected by the members of the Congressional Caucus and thirty were elected by the Young Democrats. Its most important function was to select the NDP's presidential candidate at every election. In the other years, it generally met more for publicity, and was also responsible for the party platform (although it general rubber-stamped the Congressional Leader's platform). Meetings of the National Convention were organised by the National Executive Council. The fifteen National Executive Council members were elected by the members of the National Convention. They served for an unlimited number of three-year terms. The Council was responsible for fundraising, attracting support and election strategy. It was led by the President, who, besides acting as the presiding officer of the both of the Council and Covention, had few powers other than those of any other Council member. He or she could not serve multiple terms. The General Secretariat, led by the Secretary-General, was the administrative branch of the NDP. It had control over the routine matters that concerned the party, such as membership and the organisation of elections. At the state level, the NDP was similarly organised. The state branches had a significant amount of autonomy, which they were generally unafraid to exercise. The state branches were composed of a large number of more loosely organised local branches. Members were expected to attend at least one local branch meeting a year, and most did; however, most members only became active during the electioneering season. The NDP's youth wing was the Young Democrats. Membership was open to anyone between the ages of twelve and twenty-eight. The Young Democrats was organised like the actual NDP, although it did not have a national organisation; rather, it only operated at the state level. See also: NDP Elections Platform The NDP itself stated that: The New Democratic Party is a libertarian-leaning centrist party which stands for *Reducing the size of government and instead using private enterprise to provide services, *Reducing taxes, regulation and the influence of unions to allow the free market to operate, *Responsible spending by the government, which should never run a deficit except in times of crisis, *A minimum wage and health care support for the poor to ensure that they do not fall through the cracks, *Greater civil liberties and giving people the right to follow their own values and celebrating diversity, *Ensuring that everyone is equal under the law and preventing segregation or discimination, *Centralisation of government powers to ensure greater fairness, *A secular society built upon reason, and *Greater diplomatic engagement with foreign countries to ensure peace, while always putting Zardugal first. Leadership Political Representation Electoral History Congressional Elections !Year !Seats !Change in Seats !Seats (%) !Votes (%) !Votes !Swing (%) |- |3323 |230||▲230||57.50||58.58||26,752,356||▲58.58 |- |3324 |165||▼65||41.25||41.72||23,843,014||▼16.86 |- |Jan 3327 |308||▲143||47.38||47.39||30,554,678||▲5.67 |- |Dec 3327 |153||▼155||20.40||20.63||12,868,780||▼26.76 |- |Jan 3329 |204||▲51||27.20||26.83||16,542,671||▲6.20 |- |Dec 3329 |402||▲198||53.60||53.46||29,248,220||▲26.63 |- |3332 |397||▼5||52.93||52.39||29,273,264||▼0.53 |- |3335 |386||▼11||51.47||51.21||27,986,214||▼1.46 |- |3338 |386||▲▼0||51.47||50.87||28,624,933||▼0.34 |- |3341 |369||▼17||49.20||49.32||31,654,063||▼1.55 |- |3344 |216||▼17||28.80||28.73||18,986,079||▼20.58 |- |3347 |188||▼28||25.07||24.79||15,359,570||▼3.94 |- |Feb 3350 |176||▼12||23.47||23.24||13,297,351||▼1.55 |- |Jun 3350 |575||▲399||76.67||77.24||20,740,655||▲54.00 |- |3353 |151||▼424||20.13||18.85||10,928,333||▼58.39 |} Presidential Elections !Year !Candidate !Votes (No) !Votes (%) !Result |- |rowspan="2"|3324 |rowspan="6"|Wyatt Walker |23,940,104||41.92||Progressed to run-off |- |29,766,150||50.49||Elected |- |rowspan="2"|Jan 3327 |30,870,420||47.84||Progressed to run-off |- |30,327,273||50.82||Elected |- | rowspan="2"|Dec 3327 |12,205,914||19.88||Eliminated |- |16,102,346||25.94||Eliminated |- |Dec 3329 |rowspan="4"|Karen Sosa |29,906,331||54.42||Elected |- |3332 |29,813,549||52.73||Elected |- |3335 |27,827,951||51.14||Elected |- |3338 |28,639,683||50.47||Elected |- |3341 |rowspan="3"|Andrew McPherson |32,047,192||49.23||Defeated |- |3344 |19,050,902||28.80||Eliminated |- |3347 |15,638,781||25.05||Eliminated |- |Feb 3350 |Lance Steinmann |12,526,514||21.84||Eliminated |- |Jun 3350 |Did not contest |0||0||N/A |- |3353 |Lance Steinmann |10,817,154||18.78||Eliminated |} Category: Zardugal Category:Zardic Political Parties Category:Federation of Zardugal